Tuesday, December 14, 2004

The Split

Flint Locke arrived early at the Hole. Herb noticed that instead of ordering a Mickey’s, Flint said, “I’ll have a beer.”

“Mickey’s?”

“Yeah.”

Herb also noticed that Flint, already a man of few words, was less talkative than usual and spoke with his jaw clenched, kind of like Rod Serling. Flint took his beer and moved to a table to wait for his men. He’d found a biker tattoo artist at Myrtle Beach who agreed to perform the tongue slitting. He’d spent the last few weeks letting it heal and, at the bathroom mirror, trying out different facial expressions, sneers, snarls, and tongue-flickings to gauge how he could best use this evolutionary development to affect his followers and win converts to the cause. He also was beginning to have second thoughts about the lisp. He became more conscious of his speech and his word choices. He began training himself to be more careful when responding verbally and choose his words carefully. Besides hiding the lisp, he was sure this tactic made him appear more serious and thoughtful.

This would be the first time the Troopers had met since the split. He had told his men that he was taking off a few weeks to help his mother move from Pensacola to Lubbock. During that period he’d also found an unlicensed Filipino doctor who agreed to perform the tarsal amputations. The procedure for the right foot was scheduled for next week. After a period of recovery and adjustment, he’d then have the left foot done.